Effectiveness of commercial and experimental termite monitors for the desert subterranean termite, Heterotermes aureus (Snyder) (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae), in Southern Arizona

We report here the evaluation of several publicly available commercial monitoring stations alone with several developing designs to improve the ability to capture termites with implications for termite baiting and research studies. Over a 2 years, 12 treatments were evaluated with year (F1,351=0.13, P=0.71), date (F1, 351=0.0011, P=0.97) and the interaction between normality and homogeneity of variance factors (F1, 351=2.76, P=0.097) having not significantly affect on number of termites collected. In 2001-2002, Firstline® and Termicon® did not capture any H. aureus and were excluded from statistical analysis. Trap type affected termite capture (F5, 354=2.27, P=0.047), with Termitrol® capturing the least, Arizona Research Monitoring Station (ARMS)-BBT the most, and the other traps being intermediate. In 2003, date was positively associated with the number of H. aureus in capture efficacy within the eight traps (F1, 162=17.91, P < 0.001). Overall results showed commercial monitors tested were extremely limited in their ability to obtain termites.